“Strativari” is a show conceived and created for the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia 2019, directed by Raffaele Di Florio, with subject and text by Stefano Valanzuolo, original music by Capone&BungtBangt and Solis String Quartet and the narrator Iaia Forte.
Wednesday 10 July at 22.00 pm at the Courtyard of the Royal Palace of Naples, the show will focus on the image of a multifaceted Naples. Two musical groups very different in vocation and history collaborate, with the precious theatrical complicity of Iaia Forte, to create a new show that, alternating quotes with original contributions, celebrates the unusual image of a city that cannot be labelled. Seen from above, the city seems like one, but to the traveler who chooses to descend into its bowels to cross it, Naples will reveal the many layers that compose it, superimposed and perceptible in their fascinating specificity, yet inextricably linked in a weave of colors, smells, sounds. There is no logic that can explain the mystery of this fruitful osmosis of souls favored by invisible bonds that go far beyond physical proximity. If anything, it will be revealed by a sound suggestion that, like the city, does not allow categories: it is neither noble nor plebeian, but strong and authentic whether it comes from a violin, an old broom disguised as a guitar or a voice that seduces, lulls and enraptures. Eyes, legs and reason are not enough to travel through the city in layers: you need music. “The idea for this show came a long time ago – explains Maurizio Capone, frontman of BungtBangt -, in the sense that one of my goals, since 1999, is to also touch classical music with our instruments and our language. So when Ruggero Cappuccio, director of the NTFI, asked me to participate in the 2019 festival with an unpublished project, I didn't hesitate to propose an ensemble with the Solis String Quartet. We are two quartets with extremely different languages and instrumentation but with an identical vision of music on a philosophical level. We had already had the pleasure of collaborating with them on our song “Case Fracassate” so we already had a good feeling. But this time the integral fusion of the two groups is spectacular, both musically and humanly we worked as a collective in which the goal is to create beauty without putting personalisms first. A very stimulating and also very fun experience since the spirit that unites us is also jovial. During the first meeting we immediately thought of involving people who could give us further elements that would make the project even more original, for this reason we immediately involved Stefano Valanzuolo for the writing of a story and Raffaele Di Florio for the direction. Once the driving force was composed, we needed to involve a multifaceted and daring actor who could interpret the thousand layers that make up the show, we decided that Iaia Forte was the right person to complete this idea of transversality and musical and cultural stratifications. His theatricality, which comes from the Neapolitan avant-garde, has further enriched us and contributes to making the project unique. The artistic choices aim to describe a Naples outside of stereotypes, even those of recent birth, and suggest new visions, alternatives and far-reaching. Both we and the Solis already do it, each in our own way, but this is a very ambitious challenge that takes us into new and very different fields, approaching the unapproachable. I can guarantee that this is the essence of our way of making art: never stopping and basking in what we are already capable of. Sempre avanti verso nuove sfide e nuove contaminazioni.”
The show Strativari is conceived as a suite and is composed of eight movements (with a Prologue and an Epilogue) different in color, dynamics and atmospheres. Eight tables, eight emotional portraits that touch as many affections - memory, passion, play, conflict, fatigue, denunciation, desire, devotion - explored from the point of view of the Neapolitans.
“Unconventionality is a trait that has always distinguished us and that goes well with Capone&BungtBangt – says Gerardo Morrone of the Solis String Quartet – in this project we tell the story of our city, through the captivating, incisive and often irreverent voice of Iaia Forte. The stimuli are as multiple as the layers of Naples made up of a plurality of languages and unique styles. From a musical point of view we have brought together, with the game of contrast, great authors such as Bach, Mozart, Prokofiev and Viviani with original pieces by both Capone and the Solis String Quartet composed by Antonio Di Francia. All expertly curated by Stefano Valanzuolo and Raffaele Di Florio.”
The aim of the show is to cast a disenchanted glance at a territory that is too often, and inappropriately, psychoanalysed, explored, reviled or too loved, capturing the torment and ecstasy of a contradictory and therefore fascinating reality.
The title, instead, through a play on words, evokes the name of the most famous violin maker of all time and refers to a nobly classical dimension. But the “various” “layers” that make up the image of Naples imply, in reality, a plurality of languages, styles, bodies and souls that, perhaps, have no equal elsewhere. Just as the geological stratification of a territory tells the morphological evolution of the place, so the method used to build the “dramaturgy” of the musical/theatrical work has adopted the “stratification” of music in its infinite declinations, trying to give the spectator the many identities of a community, of a country, of an entire civilization.
“It is an honor for me to work with incredibly talented musicians – says actress Iaia Forte – and I believe it is essential, in a historical moment like this, to re-aggregate artistically in a collective process that also sees direction and author as an essential part. Apparently different realities have met and united by the same expressive needs and artistic intentions. This thing heartens me and makes me vital especially today when we tend to have individualistic artistic experiences. So there is not only the pleasure, as an actress, of being part of such a rich and stimulating group but as a human being I have the pleasure of joining a show in which the meeting becomes an essential and precious element”.
EDITORIAL TEAM
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